Sisyrinchium striatum Aunt May

Sisyrinchium striatum 'Aunt May' is a lovely variegated form of Striated Bermuda Blue-eyed Grass. It has elegant green-grey foliage bordered with cream and is less vigorous and more compact than the species. This rhizomatous and evergreen perennial plant has beautiful pale yellow star-shaped flowers streaked with purple in summer. While adapted to drought, it will be more beautiful in moist soil. It enjoys the sun and well-drained, poor and slightly chalky soils, where it readily self-seeds.

Originally from Argentina, Brazil, and Chile, Sisyrinchium striatum, also known as Phaoiophleps nigricans, belongs to the Iridaceae family. The Aunt May variety, also named 'Variegatum', distinguishes itself with more modest growth and white-cream bordered foliage. This clump-forming perennial will reach 50 cm (20in) high and 30 cm (12in) wide with a moderately fast growth rate.
Blue-eyed Grass forms a dense, compact, and spreading clump. In late spring and summer, flattened flower stems appear among the foliage with 6-petaled, light lemon-yellow flowers with pointed tips in an open cup around a more intense yellow throat, streaked with purple. Their undersides are striped with brown-purple. 5 to 15 flowers are grouped in whorls along the spikes, each spike carrying up to 90 flowers in a season. On each whorl, only 1 to 3 flowers are open at any one time. The plant produces many round, black seeds that germinate easily. It has fan-shaped, grass-like, evergreen, grey-green foliage bordered with cream. The floral stems and foliage gradually turn black during the season. Young seedlings closely resemble grass. This perennial is hardy down to -15°C in porous soil.

Plant Sisyrinchium striatum 'Aunt May' in any moist but well-drained, even occasionally dry, poor and rocky soil. It looks stunning when planted en masse along a sunken path or overhanging the top of a wall. A drought-tolerant and truly attractive plant, essential in wild, Mediterranean, or even Asian-inspired gardens due to its clean shapes. It will brighten up rockeries, the edges of waterfalls and artificial streams, popping up here and there to give a natural look. It pairs well with the grey foliage of artemisias, Crocosmia crocosmiiflora 'Emily McKenzie', bergenia, or Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foerster'. This perennial will look good in rockeries, containers, borders, waterfalls, streams, banks, flower beds, or lagoons.